Nebuchadnezzar (Bukhtanasar)

Bukhtanasar, king of Babylon, in the introduction of "Al-Rahiq al-Makhtum". He raided the Arabs at Dhat 'Irq, and at his second raid in 587 BCE the Banu Adnan scattered into Yemen. He is the one who ruined the lands of the Jews and destroyed their temple in 587 BCE, and took their notables captive to Babylon. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

The power of Jurhum weakened shortly before Bukhtanasar appeared, and the political star of Adnan began to shine on the horizon of Mecca. This is shown by the account of his raid on the Arabs at Dhat 'Irq, for the Arab commander in the battle was not a Jurhumite. ^{1 2} In his second raid, in 587 BCE, the Banu Adnan scattered into Yemen; the prophet Jeremiah took Ma'add to Syria, and when Bukhtanasar's pressure receded Ma'add returned to Mecca. ^{1 3}

The first wave of the Jews in the Arabian Peninsula was their migration in the time of the Babylonian and Assyrian conquests of Palestine. The pressure on the Jews, the ruin of their lands and the destruction of their temple by Bukhtanasar in 587 BCE, and the capture of their notables to Babylon, led a part of them to leave Palestine for the Hijaz and settle in its northern regions. ^{4 5} See Judaism in Arabia.

• The report about Jeremiah and Ma'add comes from the author's citation of "Rahma lil-Alamin" alone; the comparison of the Babylonian captivity (587 BCE) with the Arab accounts of the raids has not yet been added.